i heard that defragmenting can be bad for audio files

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earworm

New member
good morning :D

a friend of mine told me he noticed problems with audio files on his computer and says that its because of defragmenting

now this is a bit weird i think cause i notice an improvement of performance after defragmenting, so i think its all good

anyone else "heard" similar gossip?

cheers
 
earworm said:
good morning :D

a friend of mine told me he noticed problems with audio files on his computer and says that its because of defragmenting

now this is a bit weird i think cause i notice an improvement of performance after defragmenting, so i think its all good

anyone else "heard" similar gossip?

cheers
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If your audio files are that important that you can't stand to lose them, then you should be backing them up on other drives right from day one.

Otherwise, backup before messing with your data. That's printed on every page of every repair manual on the planet.
 
I've never had problems with Audio Files, but I have heard of it screwing up the licensing for the audio application. The Defrag application, for some reason occasionally moved, changed, deleted the hidden file the application looked for. Kinda like you have to turn off you anti-virus to get some apps to install properly.

But I think that was specific to a 3rd party defrag app, and a specific audio app...
 
If youre using ADOBE defragging will mess up your files and hose your system. Outside of that, youre better off doing it on a regular basis.
 
I seriously doubt that you will find much of a performance boost these days even from defraging the hard drive, unless it is REALLY fragmented. Windows XP does a nice job of keeping the drive in order, and your modern hard drive has an insane amount of cache!
 
Ford Van said:
I seriously doubt that you will find much of a performance boost these days even from defraging the hard drive, unless it is REALLY fragmented. Windows XP does a nice job of keeping the drive in order, and your modern hard drive has an insane amount of cache!
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yup exactly.

Maybe a 1% boost, nothing noticable unless it's really fragmented. Other than that, defragging shouldn't mess with your audio files. The files stay in the same location that windows will see it as. Windows just indexes so that it speeds up the process of finding the file and executing it.
 
The time it takes to defrag vs the benefit you get from doing it makes it not worth it to me. Maybe on smaller (~10GB), older drives running 98 or something.
 
danny.guitar said:
The time it takes to defrag vs the benefit you get from doing it makes it not worth it to me. Maybe on smaller (~10GB), older drives running 98 or something.
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Eh there's more benefits than just performance. We're talking about a device that's head shoots across the platter just to play 1 mp3. That equals more work for HD, which shortens lifespan theoretically. I usually leave mine on over night defragging or while I'm eating or whatever. Or if you have a large hard drive, something like 500gb that's fragmented drastically, the effects are more severe than a drive that's 20gb and fragmented.
 
I defrag Mine every Day and it only takes about 2 Minutes if you do it regularilly.....

I have noticed a Drastic improvement in File reading and file access from when i didn"t defrag so I find It usefull....
 
thanks for the info,

at work i use a computer with about 160gb of HD,
sometimes i notice HUGE differences in performance after a defrag (but this pc urgently needs a reformat...)

i also defrag when i go eat or sleep, in my studio i got hundreds of gigs so that does take a while

now, extra question, there are third party apps that let you defrag A LOT faster, once used such a thing, years ago but can't recall the name,

you got experience with it? is it still decent if the app just works superfast? Or maybe its like a quick format, some crap might remain....
 
earworm said:
thanks for the info,

at work i use a computer with about 160gb of HD,
sometimes i notice HUGE differences in performance after a defrag (but this pc urgently needs a reformat...)

i also defrag when i go eat or sleep, in my studio i got hundreds of gigs so that does take a while

now, extra question, there are third party apps that let you defrag A LOT faster, once used such a thing, years ago but can't recall the name,

you got experience with it? is it still decent if the app just works superfast? Or maybe its like a quick format, some crap might remain....
Click to expand...

I used 1 app for defrag.. I turned it off 5 minutes later and used the one that came with windows. Personally I bet there is good ones out there, but the one that I tried was slower than window's. I think it was called WinCleaner Complete PC Care. Installed it here at work just for the F of it...
Came with 2 options for defrag

1. Defrag System Files
2. Defrag Selected Files & Folders

So you either defrag just the system files, or whatever files you choose... Me, I have millions apon zillions of files on my work computer.... I chose the section option. it took FOREVER because it adds those files to a list to be defragmented, which ultimatly took too long for me to begin the defrag process.
 
There is absolutely no way defragging can harm your audio files. It can't screw up your licensing either.

There is always so much bullshit about how computers work around here, it's insane!
 
The defrag Program that I use that is REALLY Fast (especially if you use it every day) is called "VoptXP 7" ....

It is a really small program that works really fast and you can configure it to defrag your PC and then automaticly shut it down when it is done.....

It takes about 5 minutes to defrag both my 160gb and my 120gb drives if I run them every day but I suppose it could take longer if you have a Lot of new files written to the drive......


:)
 
TripleJ said:
There is absolutely no way defragging can harm your audio files. It can't screw up your licensing either.

There is always so much bullshit about how computers work around here, it's insane!
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x2

Most musicians/"audio people" could give two shits how these things work. That's why macs are so popular :)
 
TripleJ said:
There is absolutely no way defragging can harm your audio files. It can't screw up your licensing either.

There is always so much bullshit about how computers work around here, it's insane!
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It WILL affect Adobe. I'm an Adobe dealer and installer and very qualified on this.
 
Hard2Hear said:
It WILL affect Adobe. I'm an Adobe dealer and installer and very qualified on this.
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I've never heard of defragging messing with any licenses or anything, unless the licensed program keeps track of where the license is on the physical drive and not just the file system.

But then again I'm not an Adobe dealer/installer. :p
 
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